NEW YORK — ABC News says veteran news correspondent Richard Threlkeld has been killed in a car accident.

The 74-year-old Threlkeld died Friday morning in Amagansett, N.Y., and was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital. He lived nearby in East Hampton. 

Threlkeld, who worked for ABC News from 1982-89, spent the majority of his career at CBS News, retiring in 1998. He was a reporter, anchor and bureau chief for CBS for more than 25 years. He covered the Persian Gulf War and the Vietnam War, the Patty Hearst kidnapping and trial, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

His final assignment at CBS was as Moscow correspondent.